Nagarjunakonda: Ancient Buddhist town in Andhra Pradesh




NAGARJUNAKONDA



About 1700 years ago, Nagarjunakonda used to be a prosperous Buddhist town in Andhra Pradesh. What had been a successful centre in earlier times, has been preserved in the form of an island at present. Infact, it is one amongst the 20 major Buddhist sites in India.

It is 160 km west of important historic site Amaravati Stupa.

The ruins of several Mahayana Buddhist and Hindu shrines are located at Nagarjunakonda. It is one of India's richest Buddhist sites, and now lies almost entirely under the Nagarjunasagar Dam.

At the time of dam's construction, to save this site from submersion beneath the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, all relics were collected brick by brick to contour the similar town. 


Amphitheater (about 1700 years old)
It can accommodate about a thousand spectators. It is a unique example of architecture in ancient India. 
It encloses a rectangular area 16.46 x 13.72 m.
The place could have been used for sports and wrestling as attested by several scriptural representations of wrestling scenes from Nagarjunakonda.



The site being excavated.


 



















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